South Africa’s farms and agricultural waste streams could play a bigger role in strengthening energy security, creating new markets for farmers while reducing the country’s dependence on imported fuel.
By Lebogang Mashala, editor at African Farming
South Africa’s energy-security challenge is no longer only about keeping the lights on. It is increasingly about how the country fuels its cars, trucks, farms and industries – and how much of that fuel it can produce at home.
With major domestic refineries having closed, South Africa now imports close to 75% of its liquid fuel in finished form, leaving the country exposed to international oil prices, geopolitical tensions and supply-chain disruptions.
For an economy where agriculture and logistics depend heavily on liquid fuels, the implications are significant.
Against this backdrop, agricultural resources – from sugarcane and sorghum to used cooking oil, crop residues and organic waste – could play a bigger role in strengthening energy security.
For Nanda Kishore Chanda, Country Manager at Novonesis South Africa, the opportunity lies in making better use of resources the country already produces.
“South Africa’s energy-security challenge is also a question of economic resilience. The more dependent we are on imported fuel, the more exposed our economy becomes to events beyond our control,” he says.
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Turning crops into fuel
South Africa has long discussed biofuels as part of a more diversified energy mix, but a larger domestic industry could also create new markets for farmers.
Recent work by the Localisation Support Fund identifies grain sorghum and sugarcane among the most viable domestic feedstocks for bioethanol production.
A mandatory 10% bioethanol blend in petrol could create a domestic market approaching 1 billion litres of bioethanol a year, while keeping more fuel expenditure within the local economy. For farmers, this could open another market for crops such as sorghum and sugarcane.
But producing fuel cannot come at the expense of food production or make farming businesses commercially unviable.
“Biofuels can create additional markets for agricultural producers, but the model must work for farmers. We need value chains that are commercially sustainable and do not undermine food production,” Chanda says.
The bigger opportunity may therefore lie in getting more value from existing agricultural production and waste.
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Waste as an energy resource
South Africa generates an estimated 600 to 800 tonnes of used cooking oil every day. Much of this could potentially be collected and converted into biodiesel.
Agricultural residues and organic waste present another largely untapped resource.
Globally, agricultural and organic waste has the potential to produce the equivalent of almost 1 trillion cubic metres of natural gas annually, yet less than 5% of this potential is currently utilised.
For South Africa, turning waste into energy has an important advantage: it does not necessarily require additional land for fuel crops.
“We should not look at agricultural residues and organic waste simply as waste. They are resources that contain value, including energy value, if we have the technology and infrastructure to unlock it,” Chanda says.
The challenge is making conversion commercially viable.
This is where enzymes and other biosolutions could play a role. By improving processes that convert crops, used cooking oil and organic waste into bioethanol, biodiesel and biogas, biological technologies can help extract more value from each tonne of feedstock.
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A new market for agriculture
The potential impact extends beyond fuel production.
A growing bioenergy industry would require farmers to produce feedstocks, businesses to collect waste, transporters to move raw materials and processing facilities to convert them into energy.
This could create new economic activity in rural areas while strengthening links between agriculture, manufacturing and energy.
Sorghum, in particular, could become part of this equation. As a relatively water-efficient crop, it has potential to contribute to agricultural diversification and biofuel production, provided markets and production economics support expansion.
Improving productivity is equally important. If farmers can produce more from the same land and resources, agriculture can potentially supply additional feedstocks without placing the same pressure on land and water.
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From ambition to action
Turning this potential into a functioning industry will require more than technology.
Policy certainty, investment, infrastructure, reliable feedstock supply chains and collaboration between government, farmers and industry will be essential. So will a practical approach to balancing food and fuel.
“Agriculture has a much bigger role to play in the energy-security conversation. We should be asking how we can create more value from what South African farmers already produce,” Chanda says.
International developments show the potential of such an approach. Biofuels reduced global oil demand by an estimated 2.5 million barrels a day in 2024, while recent supply-chain disruptions have prompted countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe to introduce or expand biofuel mandates.
South Africa’s opportunity is to develop an approach suited to its own resources and economic realities.
Sugarcane and sorghum can provide feedstocks for ethanol; used cooking oil can become biodiesel; and agricultural and organic waste can produce biogas.
The opportunity is to connect these resources into a broader domestic energy system – giving agriculture a bigger role not only in feeding South Africa but potentially helping to fuel it as well.
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